MNsure enrollment numbers are out but murky

More than 3,700 people have used the website of MNsure, the state's new health insurance exchange, to take significant steps toward obtaining health insurance coverage for next year, state officials announced Wednesday.

The tally includes 406 Minnesotans who are making plans to pay for private health insurance policies they've selected through the state-run marketplace.

An additional 3,363 state residents have used the health exchange website in the two weeks since its launch to determine eligibility for the Medicaid and MinnesotaCare public health insurance programs, according to data released Wednesday.

"In total, if you look at the people in the enrollment process, 3,769 people are in that process," said April Todd-Malmlov, MNsure's executive director, during a board meeting Wednesday in St. Paul.

"We do anticipate that most people are going to come (for coverage) in December, so we're grateful to see the good numbers right away."

The numbers released Wednesday are the most detailed look yet at how many consumers are using MNsure, which the state has funded with $110 million in federal grants. Whether any of the 3,769 people should be considered as enrolled in coverage was the matter of some debate Wednesday.

Insurance companies point out that they haven't yet received information from MNsure about any of the 406 people who are making plans to pay premiums. The reporting lag has resulted in some consumer confusion, though health plans and state officials aren't sounding alarms.

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"Recently, a person called their new plan for help scheduling an appointment in January, but assisting the person was difficult without the enrollment information," Eileen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, said in a statement.

Minnesota is creating MNsure in response to the federal Affordable Care Act. The law requires almost all Americans to have health insurance starting next year, and state-level exchanges are meant to be an option for individuals as well as small businesses with 50 or fewer workers.

Minnesota is one of 16 states plus the District of Columbia running their own exchanges. Those marketplaces, plus an exchange being operated by the federal government for 34 states including Wisconsin, launched on Oct. 1 with a number of glitches that frustrated consumers.

Since it was passed in 2010, responses to the federal law have exemplified partisan divides between Democrats who support the legislation and Republicans who want it repealed. On Wednesday, Republicans in Minnesota seized on the lack of data being transmitted to insurance companies that had been expecting to get the information this week.

Todd-Malmlov said health insurers will still get the information in plenty of time so that people who have selected a plan through the health exchange website will be covered by Jan. 1.

"They'll be getting that enrollment information towards the end of this month, which is really very similar to what other state exchanges and the federal government are doing," Todd-Malmlov said. "We are going through the process of making sure all the information in there is accurate."

"Two weeks after MNsure's rocky launch, not a single Minnesotan has been able to complete enrollment in health insurance through Democrats' new state agency," Rep. Tara Mack, a Republican from Apple Valley, said in a statement. "Today, I was disappointed to see MNsure officials continue to move the goal posts in an effort to hide their failures from the public."

In the market for individual policies, 12,000 people have created website accounts that would allow them to obtain coverage through MNsure, while 5,569 website users have completed applications to learn if they will get federal tax credits to lower the cost of coverage.

Since some applicants are also seeking coverage for dependents, the number of people linked to completed applications is 11,684, according to MNsure. Not all those who have completed an application have yet picked a plan, and some of those who have picked a plan aren't yet making immediate plans to pay for it.

"I really don't think most people are going to pay for a plan 2 1/2 months before it's effective," Todd-Malmlov said.

In the case of people who qualify for Medicaid and MinnesotaCare, their enrollment process usually involves other steps with either county governments or the state Department of Human Services. Among small business shoppers, four companies have completed the plan set-up process, which would allow workers at those firms to select a health plan in December.

Brian Beutner, the chairman of the MNsure board, said he's encouraged by the early numbers, but said there aren't clear benchmarks for evaluating Minnesota's performance thus far.

For months, MNsure has put forward a range of projections for the likely number of enrollees for 2014, with the estimate for individuals obtaining commercial coverage through the exchange ranging from a low of 102,800 to a high of 178,000. In the small business market, projections ranged from 13,125 to 39,375 enrollees next year.

On Wednesday, Todd-Malmlov said MNsure has decided to adopt the lowest figures as its enrollment goals.

"This really is the first year, people are just learning about MNsure," she said of the decision. "We think it will be at the low end during the ramp-up."

The figures don't include projected enrollment in public health insurance programs through MNsure.

Among state-based exchanges, the marketplace in Maryland had enrolled 1,121 people in coverage as of Friday, Oct. 11. But Betsy Charlow, a spokeswoman for the Maryland exchange, could not say how many people had selected a private health plan versus qualifying for Medicaid.

The breakdown also wasn't clear for the 9,453 individuals who had enrolled in coverage options by Thursday, Oct. 10, in Kentucky.

As of Oct. 7, the health exchange in Washington said that 916 people had enrolled in private coverage while another 8,500 had enrolled in public health insurance programs.

In employer-sponsored health plans, Beutner said, most employees wait until the end of open enrollment periods to sign up. People have until Dec. 15 to obtain coverage for next year through MNsure.

"These are early indications," Beutner said of the numbers released Wednesday, "and that's really all it is."